Bipolar Support Forums
To Share and Support One Another

If you have any questions about living with Bipolar Disorder, we'll do our best to answer and share our experiences. Are you worried about symptoms? When to call your pdoc/tdoc? Whatever your concern....Ask Away!

Snowflakes gently floating from the sky just dusting the ground. Then it picks up bigger fatter flakes cascading from space at a faster rate. From a dusting to a trace. Then the deluge comes. Oh what joy. Watching everything slow to a crawl, then a stop. Step outside and even with things moving it is quiet. It is a giant muffler the earth is wearing. Causing everything to be muted.To be calm.

Still waiting. . BP 1 at 40. Pretty typical path. I went for help when depressed. When up, I avoided, plus I was able to talk myself out of legal trouble, was usually ridiculously productive, and spent time far from family and friends and out of the country. So assuming the diagnosis is right, I played a pretty significant role in the delay.

The other comorbid dxs are now invalid, waiting for new tdoc's assessment, she thinks I don't meet the criteria for all of those diagnosis. We'll see. So, the term "correctly" doesn't apply to me yet. Again...

Genetically evolved chicken at your service

My therapist says I don't have crazy eyes

Never surrender your freedom of being to the veridict of those who are strangers to your inner workings

Not really, it's okay really. Just labels, what matters is the symptoms and we will treat them.

Tdoc just thinks that these symptoms can be explained by another stuff, like brain damage from the years of substance abuse or even the trauma. The latter makes more sense, since while dealing with trauma symptoms just got worse, and from yesterday to today anxiety simply vanished for example.

The OCD dx has to have serious life impairment to be diagnosable, I don't have that, it's just annoying sometimes, other times it's not even present. Small obsessions and intrusive thoughts are my symptoms.

The GAD dx, anxiety has to be present all the time. In my case it's not, just when the trauma memories are triggered.

Some docs just simply dx, and she thinks it's easier explained by reactions to all the trauma, since it was from birth until I was 27. And I was only able to talk about my trauma since what, March/April, so...

She doesn't even think I meet all the criteria for CPTSD, now that was the shocker. But she's not sure and doesn't want to be sure with just one appointment.

Genetically evolved chicken at your service

My therapist says I don't have crazy eyes

Never surrender your freedom of being to the veridict of those who are strangers to your inner workings

Yes, she said what I think too, diagnosis have the value of being either a relief or a pain, and treatment management for pdocs. In the case of my country, where we don't need diagnoses to have or not have health insurance for example, they're really not worth much.

Most docs here treat symptoms, not dxs.

She asked me if being diagnosed is a relief, I told her that going from schizophrenia to bipolar was a relief because I really didn't identify with schizophrenia, and do have intense mood swings. And especially because I did the research on my symptoms on my own and came up with it alone, then my pdoc confirmed, so there was a sense of gratification lol

Genetically evolved chicken at your service

My therapist says I don't have crazy eyes

Never surrender your freedom of being to the veridict of those who are strangers to your inner workings

I was 35 when I was diagnosed with BP after being treated for depression for years and after having a nervous breakdown. In trying to make my husband happy, I had exhibited some risqué behavior totally unlike myself and thus diagnosed with bipolar.

I suffer more from depression and anxiety than mania but I do have manic episodes.

Well the first time I didn't take it seriously because the pdoc really did t explain things to me, I was just probably in denial then friends started saying "you're not bipolar" so I took that and ran with it.

2 weeks ago at age 46 I went to my tdoc because the husband left and I had a breakdown. She said I had characteristics of BP. So after another breakdown I had my sister take me to the ER, was assessed by Behaviora Health, saw a pdoc dx'd BP2. Relief and hope were the first things I felt.

"Today, I will trust this process and this journey that I have undertaken"

I keep getting the two dates confused, it was either the Marf's first and then the BP or the other way around which was at 25 and 28. I was diagnosed with major depression before then till my first hospitalization for a break-down/suicidal crisis. The company I worked for back then sent me flowers and I chucked it across the room nearly hitting the nurse Was very paranoid/delusional and most likely going into psychosis as I thought they were all out to get me.